BY: ROCANA DASA
Aug 23, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
I've recently embarked upon a revival of listening to and appreciating the recorded sessions of Srila Prabhupada interacting with small groups of devotees, either on his morning walks or in room conversations. My current work circumstances allow me to listen non-stop to this MP3 content for many hours a day. It has rejuvenated and enlivened me more than I can say. By instituting this new weekly serial, "Talks With the Sampradaya Acarya", I hope to share some of my observations on these conversations with our readers.
While in some instances there are invited guests present for these conversations, Srila Prabhupada was primarily talking with his senior devotees and instructing them as to how he wanted the society to be run. At that period in time I was a "middle manager" in ISKCON, i.e., a Temple President, so I had a number of opportunities to attend the morning walks and a few room conversations.
Generally, devotees of my status were relegated to the back of the room, the outer circle, so to speak. We rarely had an opportunity to actually pose questions to Srila Prabhupada, and sometimes we could hardly even hear what he had to say. Regardless, it was a rare opportunity to get the sound vibration of the pure devotee.
Years later, as I listen to the tapes, I can recall what it was like back then, walking with Srila Prabhupada on the beach in LA or Bombay, along the dusty roads of Vrindavan and Mayapur, or sitting in on a room conversations in LA, New York or New Vrindavan. I can remember how it felt to be in the room, can see the other faces around me, and can feel the mood that pervaded these gatherings. I know the voices of those who asked questions; I know their history, and in many cases know them personally. Obviously this helps to increase my appreciation for what Srila Prabhupada was saying during these intimate conversations.
Many devotees didn't have an opportunity to know the senior men personally, and because ISKCON has been very careful about covering up their history, it's difficult for many to understand exactly what the dynamics were in those early days. Regardless of when you joined the movement, however, one can see how certain circumstances and programs that exist today compare to what Srila Prabhupada instructed in his books and lectures. That is my focus in the "Talks" series: to explore the degree to which today's ISKCON is actually following the instructions Srila Prabhupada gave to his senior men during these recorded meetings.
While the morning walks and room conversations cover a whole range of topics, Srila Prabhupada generally addressed a main theme during each session. It's impossible for me to comment on every major philosophical point that Srila Prabhupada makes in a single conversation - that would be like trying to purport the atmarama verse. And, what resonates for me in a conversation may be different from what someone else finds particularly important. I simply want to offer my realizations on the aspects of the conversation that struck me as being especially significant.
Those who know me and have read my writings, particularly on the theme of Srila Prabhupada being a Sampradaya Acarya, will understand that I feel I've now matured into a more comprehensive philosophical understanding of who Srila Prabhupada is. I describe him to be the most recent Sampradaya Acarya, nitya-siddha, sent by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to execute the phenomenal activities he performed.
During the days when Srila Prabhupada was physically present, few if any of us could really fathom who Srila Prabhupada actually was. While I can't speak for anyone else's vision of Srila Prabhupada, I think it's fair to say that everyone had a very neophyte vision of him. Although we had unbounded enthusiasm, reverence and respect for Srila Prabhupada, a lot of it was based on sentiment. Of course, we were attracted by his spiritual potency and spiritual charisma, his fatherly mood, and his powerful preaching. Even a moment's association with a pure devotee is inconceivably beneficial for the spirit soul, let alone serving and worshipping him. Still, we did not have a proper philosophical understanding of his exalted spiritual nature.
As I've stated many times, I believe that Srila Prabhupada is not, to this very day, appreciated to the degree that he should be spiritually and philosophically, and that's contributing to a great deal of the chaos and abuse of power we're experiencing both internally and externally in ISKCON. For those readers who have difficulty understanding what I'm referring to, I encourage you to read my Sampradaya Acarya paper.
For this opening serial presentation, I've chosen the well known Morning Walk of March 14, 1974 in Vrindavan, dubbed the "Varnasrama College" talk. [Read the transcript or listen to the MP3 audio file].
This morning walk obviously took place during the Mayapur Festival period, and many devotees were present in Vrindavan at the time. During this walk, Srila Prabhupada went into a great deal of detail on the subject of the varnasrama college concept. Right after this walk took place, many of us had an opportunity to hear about the discussion from the senior men, and we were all trying to digest how to implement some of the amazing ideas Srila Prabhupada presented.
This conversation basically represented his vision of how ISKCON should preach to those in the age bracket from 12 years upward. As with many topics Srila Prabhupada presented on these morning walks, this discussion is considered controversial by some today. In it, Srila Prabhupada addressed what some now think are 'politically incorrect' aspects of his proposal, including the fact that the varnasrama college should only be for men. It was to be designed for brahmanas, ksatriyas and vaisyas, but not for sudras. Srila Prabhupada considered women to be on the sudra level, because this is what sastra says, and as a Sampradaya Acaryas, he was obliged to never deviate from sastra or make proposals that were contrary to sastra. While some may think that he made many alterations when he introduced Krsna Consciousness in America compared to how it was executed in India, if one studies these changes they're actually quite minor and do not altar sastra, but rather tradition..
As his disciples and followers, we are in a different position today than the one Srila Prabhupada was in. We have to take the information both from sastra and as Srila Prabhupada presents it, and practically figure out how we can implement it. Our implementation may not be exactly as outlined, but must be according to our time, place and circumstance. We must always keep in mind what is the topmost position, as firmly established by guru, sastra and sadhu.
ISKCON did, in fact, establish a college, the Bhaktivedanta College in Belgium, which provides a range of vocational, ministerial and Bhakti Sastri courses for adults. Upon reading their course descriptions, we see the degree to which they do and do not present the kind of educational offering Srila Prabhupada instructed in his 'varnasrama college' talk. This is not meant to find fault with those who are putting great effort behind this Vaisnava institution for higher learning, but rather so the reader may consider how and why Srila Prabhupada presented his vision in the way that he did by comparing it to what is now being offered.
Near the beginning of the conversation Srila Prabhupada launched into one of his main themes - a theme that you'll find in almost every morning walk - and that is the importance of leadership. He said, "Because people have been spoiled all over the world by being misguided by the so-called leaders. Therefore varnasrama college is required. Hare Krsna."
Srila Prabhupada personified and exemplified the ideal leader, and his results speak for themselves. We could never imitate his leadership or hope to achieve anything near the results that he did, but we can certainly follow his lead as diligently as possible. At the time these conversations were taking place, the disciples had a tendency to look outwards in terms of the concept of leadership. We just assumed Srila Prabhupada was always talking about political and social leaders, not about the senior devotees who would lead his spiritual movement into the future. In hindsight, we can see that he was also referring to us. If we had realized it back them, we might have paid closer attention to what he was trying to teach us.
Our entire tradition, especially as it applies to Lord Krsna's lila outside of Vrindavan, places an external focus on Krsna's efforts to rid the world of bad leaders and replace them with good leadership. Many other incarnations of the Lord also had this as one of their primary goals. So the whole idea of leadership is extremely important to the Vaishnavas.
When we think of leadership we may think of ksatriyas, but Srila Prabhupada's main focus was on the brahmanas. He was most interested in brahminical training and creation of a brahminical class of persons who could instruct and help properly train-up the ksatriyas to do the actual administration and be a symbol and focus for the less intelligent men. Without brahminical culture being re-established through proper training, there's no hope of establishing good leadership in the society which Srila Prabhupada envisioned. Of course, this also applies to the local temples and to our own communities.
While not in this particular morning walk, I recently heard a conversation where one of the devotees said to Srila Prabhupada that a blind uncle is better than no uncle in terms of leadership. Srila Prabhupada quickly said, 'but you don't follow the blind uncle into the ditch'.
Lately and often, I have made comments on one of the greatest leadership fiascos in our movement's history, the Zonal Acarya system, which was a disastrous attempt to imitate the Sampradaya Acarya. If we're going to learn anything from that period, we should learn what not to do in terms of leadership. As is commonly stated, if you want to imitate Krsna, then you had better imitate Lord Siva and drink an ocean of poison. If you can do that, then you can imitate the exalted personalities like Srila Prabhupada. So the burden is on us to provide leadership in a humble and reverential way, with the understanding that none of us can come anywhere close to Srila Prabhupada when it comes to leadership.
Going back to Srila Prabhupada's vision in terms of what varnasrama college should be, there are some very interesting things we take note of in this morning walk. One of the main personalities questioning Srila Prabhupada was HH Hridayananda Swami, who in due course went back to university and got his Ph.D using Srila Prabhupada's money. He presumably took this course of education because Srila Prabhupada wanted his senior men, and particularly the sanyasis, to become teachers. Last I heard, Hridayananda Swami was employed as a lecturer at some college in California. I don’t think that was part of Srila Prabhupada's vision for us to fulfill his goals for the movement.
Like Hridayananda Swami, many of our senior men decided that in order to fulfill Srila Prabhupada's vision, they had to go get a university degree. Unfortunately, today there is still not a varnasrama college in North America, or elsewhere to my knowledge, and those involved in questioning Srila Prabhupada directly in this morning walk conversation are not involved in bulding one.
In the varnasrama college discussion, Srila Prabhupada presented a number of surprising instructions on the matter. He said the college should be a boarding school, and it should only be for the three higher varnas. It was only to be for men. There was to be no business taught, and no history, other than the Mahabharata. All the teachers were to be sanyasis. (We can assume this included HH Hridayananda Swami.) The only training the sudras were to have was in how to become obedient to the other 3 varnas. Sudras were to abide by the orders of the brahmanas, ksatriyas and vaisyas. Everyone should work very hard, and there should be no excess sleeping or eating.
Another interesting aspect of the conversation was between Srila Prabhupada and Yadubara dasa, who is famous for his great artistic talents in film and media. While Yadubara prabhu may have hoped to get a different answer to his query about the arts, Srila Prabhupada said there's far too much emphasis on arts and crafts, which are for sudras, and we're not so concerned with that. Hridayananda tried to prod him by saying that artists are accepted in today's culture as philosophers, but Srila Prabhupada totally rejected that idea. He said they don't know the meaning of philosophy. He said, "in your western countries the rascals, they are writing philosophy on sex life, which is known by the dog." He also characterized artists in the west by saying, "In the jungle a jackal becomes a king."
Another interesting statement is when Hridayananda asked whether we should be learning Sanskrit. Srila Prabhupada said no, Sanskrit is not necessary, just learn philosophy. Yet we see so many Godbrothers whose idea of getting training features learning Sanskrit.
Another very important point Srila Prabhupada makes is that we shouldn't worry about asrama, i.e., taking sannyasa, or brahmacaries and grhastas. He said the asramas will come later as long as you get the varnas straight. What we see in ISKCON today is exactly the opposite. In fact, in the recent Sun article, "Simple, But Powerful Key to Success", we see that the asrama aspect is very confused when you have sanyasis doing the work of ksatriyas and vaisyas, and not teaching.
While today's sannyasis may consider going around giving lectures and making disciples as being important brahminical work, their real work in training is often missing. Srila Prabhupada said that the secret of a Brahman is what he learns during the day, he teaches at night. I personally meet so many untrained disciples of ISKCON gurus who are going around with huge misconceptions about our philosophy. No one is correcting them - and no one can correct them because they're someone else's disciple. So where is the training?
One of the most important themes presented by Srila Prabhupada in this discussion is that although we should teach varnasrama, we as Vaisnavas, as devotees, are not part of the varnasrama system, we are above that level: "we are above all these varnasrama, but we must train others or ourself also for material activities, everything, under these divisions." He also gave himself as an example, explaining that he showed us how to mop the floor.
After answering many questions, Srila Prabhupada again returned to his initial point that the whole world is suffering due to the sudras being in charge of leadership, that rascal sudras are electing the government people, and that people are in total chaos because of it. He said that as long as people are in chaos, they cannot focus on philosophy. They are disturbed in every respect, so how can they take to Krsna Consciousness?
Another point Srila Prabhupada raised, which was misinterpreted and caused a great deal of chaos in our own society, was when he mentioned how another great acarya in another sampradaya had some disciples who became thieves and rogues. People wouldn't give them money, so they took it by devious means. On the basis of this conversation, certain ISKCON devotees got involved in illegal activities, justifying them in the name of sankirtana.
The devotees never make an effort to make money for themselves, but they're willing to go to all sorts of efforts to get money to be used in Krsna's service. Srila Prabhupada said that when we have big temples, it's only for serving others so they can have a chance to engage in Krsna Consciousness, but it's not for the convenience of the devotees. About the big ISKCON temples he said, "Now we have got very nice house, room. Let us sleep and eat."
Everyone has to interpret this instruction in the context of their own personal circumstances with their home temple and local leaders to see if they're complying with this order. In the future I plan to write about the circumstances locally here at the Vancouver yatra, which offer a good case study.
Interestingly, Kirtanananda Swami was not among the senior men present on this particular morning walk, although New Vrindaban was considered to be the ideal location for the varnasrama college Srila Prabhupada envisioned. While Srila Prabhupada said that he started New Vrindaban, Kirtananda later called himself the Founder/Acarya, as if he had started it. In fact, when he introduced his own vision in place of Srila Prabhupada's, the whole place fell apart.
As Srila Prabhupada stated many times on this morning walk, the vaisyas should be producing food, and that was their main business. They shouldn't be applying their intelligence to any other kind of business except this, growing and distributing food. While they shouldn't be behind the plow, they'd make sure someone else had a plow and was behind it. They determined what crops to grow, acquired the fields, etc. According to Srila Prabhupada's plan, anyone who couldn't come up the brahmana, ksatriya or vaisyas standards would be considered a sudra, and would symbolically be "put behind the plow".
In many ways, the departure of the pure devotee has put us all 'behind the plow'. In the absence of Srila Prabhupada's manifest presence, we must put our shoulder to the wheel and push hard to become realized about his instructions and to implement them properly. I hope that the "Talks" series will inspire our readers to share their realizations on these conversations, so that we will all get the benefit. We hope to have the Sun Blogs running again soon, and look forward to a lively discussion on these matters.
